Terralba, Carnivale, Half Way through

I'm a little behind in this blog so i guess i should start again with apologizing because i know that i should have done this a couple of days ago i just simply did not have the time to do it because i just got back home on Wednesday and Ive been a little sick since then but anyways.... As you can all see from the title of this blog i have a lot to tell you but I'm going to try to keep it at a reasonable length because my last few posts have been very long. These last weeks have been very busy for me which is just CRAZINESS. Ill tell you about my mid stay orientation, my experience with the Italian carnival and about the fact that ....... (keep reading)

I guess that i first off have to sadly admit to myself (although I'm still secretly denying it to myself because living in denial is easier then accepting what I'm about to tell you all...Ignorance is Bliss (just kidding..only for somethings)) that my time here in Italy is sadly half way over. I reached my half way mark on February 5, 2009. It was both a very sad and happy day for me. Honestly for me personally it was a VERY VERY sad day because it means that i am half way over in my experience and that it has gone by WAY to fast for my liking. these five months seem to be going by faster then five months in my life have ever gone by. Then there is the fact that Intercultura says that the last five months goes by twenty times faster then the first five do and honestly this scares the M*RDA out of me (i love speaking a new language ;) ) I thought that i would give you all a little recap on my life here because well i am half way through my experience here in Italy and well yeah soooo recap time..

With my family everything is simply amazing. I could not have possibly gotten a better match for a family then i actually did in Italy. I got soooooo lucky with my family. I found something out while i was here. In Italy things with host students work a little different then they do in the USA. When you want to host a student in the USA you get to read there applications and pick the ones that best "fit" with your family. You get to read about there likes and about there dislikes and about what they do when there not in school and all of that good stuff and in the end you decide who you are going to be going with. but in Italy the system works a little bit different. here the volunteers read all of the applications and they choose who they want to be in there local chapter and then as the host family applications come in THEY (the volunteers) match the family's and the kids up. The family's do not know who they are getting before intercultura tells them that they are taking in an American girl for instance. I did not know this before. So i guess that my good fortune was really good fortune. I have thanked the volunteer who matched me with my family extensively already because honestly its all up to him that i got to be with my amazing family. I LOVE my family. Me and my host sister are closer then i could have ever possibly imagined being with a host sister. Its the best thing that I've ever experienced. I was never really that close to my real siblings in the states (although that is now changing, me and my sister Shannon have been getting ALOT closer lately because of our letters.. love you sis!) and then when i came here to Italy me and Eleonora are like the exact same person. its so amazing. we have one of the best relationships that i have ever had in my whole life. she is a VERY good friend of mine here in Italy and i could not have possibly asked for a better host sister. my host parents are also absolutely AMAZING. they treat me like i am there real daughter which makes me really feel like I'm part of there family not just some girl who is living with them for a year. I'm so glad that i feel like part of the family because i was afraid that i wouldn't actually feel like part of the family in my experience but now that I'm here i could not have possibly asked for a better host family then i do have this year. i know that they will be my family for life. i know that we will not lose contact with each other because honestly i feel like family when I'm with them. I love that and i LOVE my family here :D

School is still School. Ive come to the conclusion that school in the whole world is pretty much boring (sorry to all the teachers reading this you all know that verrrrrrrry deeeeeeeep down in side i secretly love school....but(shhhhhhh) don't tell anyone). Although I must admit Italian school is more boring then most. My schedule is still going good although i have made some more minor changes to my schedule since the last time that i have told you all. I have decided to drop my Spanish class (yes i know i just cant seem to make my mind up about Spanish) because it just got to be WAY to hard to keep Spanish and Italian straight. Heck even the NATIVE Spanish people learning Italian have hard time or the NATIVE Italians have a hard time learning Spanish and not mixing them up so imagine me trying to learn them both at the same time... yes basically its IMPOSSIBLE so i decided that i would drop Spanish. I've already learned more Spanish here in Italy then i ever did in the states WITHOUT even studying Spanish. when i read Spanish or when i listen to it i can pretty much understand most of whats being said or whats written because i can understand Italian. its really cool actually. but i must say its really weird to have your brain thinking in 2 foreign languages at the same time. like now when i learn Spanish i just don't think in English at all i think directly in Italian which is a really really strange thing to happen. like I'm not using my English at all just Italian and Spanish. trust me the first time that it happened i was really shocked. with other classes in school there pretty much boring too. i still cant seem to understand my math class in Italian. i know they say that math is the same everywhere that its numbers and it cant change but i just cant seem to make any connections to my "English math" and my "Italian math" maybe its my brain right now or i don't know.. its something but i still cant seem to do it in Italian. physics is impossible. I've never studied it before and its just way to hard to start something that's difficult to begin with in a new language. plus the fact that the first 2/3 months i understood NOTHING so i lost all of the base of the subject and when i did start to understand the explanation i had no clue what was going on in the math because i didn't understand the first 2 months.. its kind of a catch 22. Also school is starting to get better because I'm starting to make more friends in school. I'm starting to get closer to the friends that i do have in my class. while i still don't go out with them much i can tell that we are getting closer which is really nice. its nice to feel like i have friends again. it really sucked in the beginning of the year when i didn't have like any friends..

Then we get to the thing that is probably one of the most important parts of my exchange. Italian. i am already to the point where i can understand 100% everything and i can for the most part express myself whenever i need to get my point across. i still don't have all of the vocabulary that i would like to have and some times the grammar still kicks my butt because honestly not even the Italians can keep Italian grammar straight sometimes. they're sooooo many exceptions to every rule and there are things that only exist for one little job that you might use like once a year. its such a pain in the butt. everyone says that around half way your Italian (or other language) just "clicks" i don't know if mine has "clicked" yet. I'm hoping that it will soon because i have less then half of my time left here and i want to be able to write without the whole sheet coming back red from corrections and be able to talk and actually say sentences perfect and to have people stop looking at me like I'm stupid when i make dumb mistakes that I know are mistakes but that i stupidly make. I know that it will happen soon. everyone just says that one day it just happens. I'm hoping that my day comes soon. i really do because i want to be able to speak more like a native then i actually do now. Italian is a very easy language to pick up but after the base the grammar is KILLER i mean even in high school the kids take grammar classes because they still make mistakes with the grammar because its so complicated.

And then there's the thing that inevitably happens to all exchange students.. Maturity. I know that i have become ALOT more mature then i was when i left for exchange. I feel so much more independent now then i did when i left the USA i know that i CAN do things on my own. i trust myself enough. i freak out way less then when i got here. I've learned to go with the flow more then i did when i was still in the USA.. I've learned that i am capable of solving my own problems and that if i think about it and work it out that i can do it on my own but then again i also know that there are times when i really do need to get help from someone and after this year i am no longer afraid to ask anyone for help. I've asked more people for help in these 5 months then i ever have in my whole life combined. I've asked EVERYONE from help from how to say something to how to get somewhere to how to put minutes on my phone to EVERYTHING. honestly when i was in the states i was sometimes embarrassed to ask for help but now that I'm here I've learned that there is nothing embarrassing about asking for help when you actually do need someones help. (i don't care what guys say when your lost ASK for help!!!! you get there faster!!!) Ive learned so many things while I've been here in Italy. I've learned that i can be alot less wound up about little things and have alot more fun. I've learned that i CAN read a map and find my way around a strange city by my self (and the help from people i ask) and eventually get to where i want to go. Ive learned that i am capable of going up to random people and start up a conversation and they will not laugh in your face when you do it. I've learned to be less shy around people and to try to express myself more. I've grown up so much this year...i mean in these 5 months that its more then even i expected of myself. i know that I'm more mature even the AFS here has said that I'm more mature then i was when i got here. then there are the little things that have changed of course. like my style of clothes here (I'm a little more preppy now because that's how things go in Italy) my taste in music has slowly been changing as well.. i listen to less rap now and i listen to more house music.. its weird all of these changes happen slowly and then when you think about them (like i am now) there really are alot of the 5 months but when they are happening you do not really notice them. I'm glad of all of things that I've learned and how that i have changed while I'm here in Italy.

Over all I'm very happy with my first 5 months of my experience but I'm not going to lie when i say that i wouldn't be at all sad if the next 5 were even better. i know that they will be because i will only get closer to my friends and family and my Italian will get better but i would not change a thing with my first 5 months honestly i have had the picture perfect exchange so far this year. I'm hoping that it doesn't change. I'm LOVING my life here. yes I've had problems but I've learned how to work them out and I've concentrated on the things that were good and happy.

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Now that I'm done with the recap of my life that I'm sure was not that interesting to you guys (sorry) I will now tell you about my Mid-Stay Orientation that i had this last week in Terralba. We had to be in Terralba on February 18-25th. We were told that this week was set up for us to talk to AFS about how our life has been these last 5 months since we got to Sardegna but in all honesty we all knew that it was also partly so that we could get together all together (all 50 of us on Sardegna) and so that we could experience the real Italian Carnival. So I'll start with what we did while we were there in Terralba, it ended up being very different then the orientation that we had in October. but different in a MUCH better way because it was SOOOOOOO much more fun then the orientation that we had in Sassari in October. I honestly did not think that that was possible but then we got to Carnival and honestly it is now a goal in my life to come back to Carnival in Italy and experience it again in my life. it was SOO much fun!!

Feb 18
We had to be at the train station in Cagliari by 11 Am so that we could all catch the 12 o'clock train to Terralba. Well because I do not live in Cagliari I had to get to Cagliari when there was a train from Carbonia. that means that I left Carbonia at 830 am and arrived in Cagliari at 930 and we (me and Nicolàs) had to sit in the train station for an hour and a half until all of the others started to arrive. let me tell you its really really boring waiting for everyone to get there especially for 2 reasons. me and Nicolas were both so tired that we did not talk at all and so the time seemed to go by even slower, then there's the fact that I'm in Italy so there 11 o clock is ALOT different then the 11o'clock in the states. Their 11 really means about 11:20 so we were sitting there waiting for what seemed to be like the LONGEST time EVER. then the others started to arrive which was nice and finally our president arrived and we started buying our tickets. we all bought our tickets together because if you buy more then 13 tickets together then you get a discount which is nice. i was put in charge of collecting the money and getting the ticket (why idk...they told me to do it) We all got on the train but there was only one problem. the train was VERY full and so we couldn't sit together. not normally a problem but we only had one ticket and the fact that not everyone knew where they had to get off was a little bit of a problem. the train went by really fast and on the second to last stop a whole bunch of other kids got on that we had not seen in a long time so it was really really nice to see them. We got off at the right station and all of the other kids were there (we were the last to arrive) and we all had amazing hello's because we had not seen each other in such a long time. it was SOOOOO amazingly nice to see everyone that i hadn't seen in a long time again. i missed these kids more then i ever thought that i ever would. i love them all. exchangers are the BEST! we then all took a bus in to Terralba so that our families could pick us up. that's right we were staying in family's for this orientation and not at a hotel. no one knew anything about there families yet but when i got on the bus the president of AFS Sardegna told me my family couldn't make it to pick me up so they were sending someone else. so i got my bag and there was this 20 or so year old guy named Nicola there to pick me up and take me to my house. It turns out that i had a Mom, a dad, and 2 little sisters. One of them was Ilaria and she was 10 and the other one was Laura and she was 8. We hung out all together for a while and the girls showed me around the house and told me who all the people in the pictures were which was nice of them. they are soooooo cute. then with AFS we had to go listen to the government of Terrable welcome us. so we all went there and honestly it was really boring. plus another thing they KNOW there are 50 of us and they still only gave us 30 chairs.. oh well.. we listened to them welcoming us for about 30 minutes and then we were told we had to be at orientation at 930 the next morning. So i went back to my house and they told me how to walk to orientation the next morning then we all went to bed.

Feb 19
I woke up in the morning so that i could have breakfast with my family before the little girls went off to school and the dad went off to work. then i finished getting ready and at about 900 am i started walking (only 10 min walk but i wasn't totally sure how to get there) and i got there really early but i found it ok which was nice. i found out something. the people in Carbonia are used to seeing me with red hair because no one turns around like I'm an alien anymore. but people in Terralba aren't used to it so i got a lot of stares when i walked through town because everyone turns to look at the "red hair" its such an oddity here.. its really quite funny actually. Well in the morning we had "orientation" which turned out to be pretty boring. we got to know all of the new kids that came on Jan 31st. there are 6 new ones in my chapter and 4 others in Sardegna so they all stood up and introduced themselves in Italian (they are all really good) and we had some time to talk to them for a while which was nice while the volunteers got all organized and what not. then we started to have orientation which consisted of talking to the volunteers about all of our problems that we have been having so far. we talked about families and about school just like we did in Sassari 4 months ago but we had way better answers now because we have actually have time to get used to everything and learn more about Italy. then we had an "Italian lunch" which basically means that we had about 2 hours to have lunch. We all ate our sack lunch and walked around Terralba for a while we found this really really cute little cafè that has everything. it has ice cream, cafè stuff as well as homemade pastas and stuff. there was room for all of us so we all basically went in there and hung out drank and ate and had an amazing time (this ended up being our hang out of the orientation) we eventually had to go back to orientation where we sang happy birthday to Nicolas who turned 18 today. he got happy birthday sang to him in about a million different languages which was really cool. its so fun to hear it in so many different languages. then we went back to our orientation but we were all making plans to have a party afterward for his birthday. so we all went home to dinner and then everyone re-met up at the bar (which means cafè in Italian) at about 830. Nicola's family had bought him a cake and then the bar bought us some traditional carnival pastas which are REALLY amazing..Zeppole... we all just hung out and ate there for a couple hours. it was alot of fun. I'm sure for him it was a little bit of a boring birthday but it was pretty fun considering the circumstances. we all left the bar at midnight because that was are curfew from AFS for the week. i had to walk home (i walked home with some other girls) and then went RIGHT to sleep because we had another day of orientation to do tomorrow.

Feb 20
I again woke up today so that i could eat breakfast with the little ones before they went off to school and then i continued to get ready but today i knew how long it took me to get to the orientation spot so i didn't leave quite so early today. well today orientation was a lot less structured and we did a lot less. First we had to fill out this survey about our time in Italy so far. i wrote SOO much. i wrote about 2 pages full of only 10 questions worth of stuff.. yeah I've found that i like to write a lot (although I'm sure you have all noticed you read this book every time i update ...LOVE you all) and that when i get started i really cant stop. then we started the "personal interviews" i didn't really need one so when Andrea asked me i said no i don't really need one and he said if there was time that we would do it. then we all started to make our little personal posters. which we had to write our name, Italy 0809 and then draw our flag. i always dread when someone says.. oh DRAW your country's flag.. the USA had to go and make a really complicated flag with 50 STARS and 13 STRIPES its horrible. and takes FOREVER to draw.. while everyone was working on there little posters we also had to make this HUGE banner for our year.. this girl named Mia started writing "AFS Intercultura" on the top of it because she draws really really well so she started writing that and then we had to get everyone to go over there and draw there country's flag on the big banner. well no one else stepped up to organize anything so eventually i stepped up and started telling people they needed to do it.. and reminding them and showing them where and repeating 10 million times what exactly they had to do because they don't seem to listen the first time you tell them, damn teenagers. I've come to find out I'm pretty good at organizing things :D. eventually we got all of the people over to the banner to start drawing their flags on the paper.. everyone naturally wanted to make there flag really really big (but the you could only do the size of a sheet of paper). we didn't quite finish it but it looked SOO pretty!! then we all went home so that we could have some dinner. then guess what we did.. that's right we all went back to the bar-cafè place again so that we could all hang out another time ( all together we spent a TON of money there)

Feb 21
In the morning I first went to the carnival with my little sisters at there school.. the whole school dressed up as scare crows and they did a circle around Terralba.. it was a lot of fun. then in the morning with AFS we had to go around and sell raffle tickets for AFS. We all split up in to 4 groups and we had to go around Terralba (which is the size of Monroe) and sell them to the shop owners and the people in the street. well because there were 50 of us in this really tiny town we went around the whole town very very quickly so it didn't even take the whole 2 hours to sell out all the tickets to raise money for AFS. Then we all went home for lunch then back out to the bar again.. haha we spent like ALL of our time at this bar while we were there. it was actually a really cute little place. there are these tables that are all glass and have money from all over the world in them.. its really really really cool i loved those tables.. its inspired me to save money from every place that i go so that i can save the money it seems like such a cool thing to save. well we had an AFS party that night. We all had to go to this place that was outside of Terralba (I saw my first cows in Sardegna lol) so that we could have the party. It was for all of the kids, volunteers, family's of Terralbe and then if your real family wanted to come them too.. so when we got there we were obviously there before the party started so we were all practicing our ... TALENT SHOW ACTS.. yes AFS seems to think that we are all very talented which is wrong. we are not talented and we weren't in October I don't know why they think that we are now.. i think they just like a good laugh with the talent show to be honest with you. we also had to finish our banner which was WAY better then all of the ones from the other years.. i was proud of us!! when all of the people started to arrive we started talking to all of the families and we listened to all of these people talk which turned out to be pretty boring and they just kept talking and we were all STARVING! so at about 930 they finally let us eat. we were all starving.. i just walked around and talked to all of the people that were there.. the family of Mateo was there so i talked to his brothers for a while because i knew them before hand i talked to the family of another boy in my chapter then of course the other students.. we then did our talent show.. all of the people did a pretty good job. there were a whole bunch of songs (in a TON of languages) there were some kids who danced some who did a little skit and then my group who sung the chorus of Hakuna Matata in like 6 different languages: German, English, Hungarian, Spanish, Russian and Italian.. it was alot of fun.. after the talent show most of the families left and all the kids started dancing around for a while which was fun then we all went home at around 1 am..

Feb 22 - CARNIVALE
Well today we had the morning free but my family decided that we were going to go to Oristano (another city) to see these horses. i had no clue why these horses were so special in Oristano for a while ( i figured it out later on Tuesday when we went and saw them in action) when we got there the horses were soo beautiful and sooooo fast.. they are trained to run REALLY fast. like the day before some stupid man had walked in front of where they were running and he almost died because of getting run over by these horses. well it turns out that the riders have to wear these special costumes and that they have to wear masks.and apparently when they ride the horses they are not allowed to touch the mask.. i'll explain why and what they do a little later when i actually figured out what they did lol.. well when we got back we went to lunch with my family (of Terralba) we had to do lunch quick because I had to be at the orientation place so i could get ready for the parade of carnivale. it was a good lunch.. we had baby pig again.. soo yummy.. idk i personally think the meat of it is too soft i don't really like it that much i prefer pig or cow..the grown up ones.. but maybe that's just me. anyway we had to all dress up like pirates for the parade. (Italians have carnival to scare away winter and the bad stuff of the year past and to bring in good things and the warmth of the new year.. and only good things.. that's why they wear masks.) well when i got there i was one of the only ones that was there yet (cause i went by my time and actually arrived on time lol) When everyone finally arrived ,some as late as 2 hours, well we eventually all got dressed to be pirates and took a bunch of pictures of course because when AFS kids are together that's basically all we do, we take pictures and more pictures and more pictures (i have about 600 from that week) then we went outside and there weren't that many people yet so we were all a little confused as to where the "thousands" of people they were talking about were. then they told us that the "Sfilata" started at 500. which made me wonder why we all had to be there at 2 oh well that's Italian organization.. we went near our float , which was a big boat that had our big banner that we had made the night before and then all the banners from the years past, there are some really funny ones but ours is definitely better then the other ones, there is one on there that the Americans drew the American flag wrong. they had the blue square on the right and side and not on the left. i was embarrassed for them.. how sad is that i mean i know its complicated but its not THAT complicated. We started walking with our float.. well for this night our float didn't have any music so they let us go in front of our float so that we could dance along with the music of the other floats.. because when you are in the "Sfilata" that's what you do. you go in your group and you dance around to some really really loud music and you throw confetti and spray that fake foam all over the place, its actually really fun. but they wouldn't let us mingle with the other groups because it was dangerous for us because basically everyone was REALLY REALLY drunk there.. they were sooooo drunk.. we weren't but all of the other people were.. the "Sfilata" ended at about 930 and we all had to go back to the place that we changed so we could pick up all of our stuff. we were then told to be careful and be smart but that we were allowed to go out until midnight. well basically we all went to our bar for a little while but then we decided that we were hungry so we went to find a pizza place were we could buy pizza.. it was really nasty but that's ok. we then pretty much went and danced and had a good time till about midnight and then we all went home.

Feb 23
During the day we had nothing to do because AFS had not organized anything for us because they assumed that we would all be a sleep.. that's pretty much was true.. but some of us got up at a reasonable hour and we all met at the bar at round 1130 for some coffee and some snacks and to talk and look at the pictures from the night before. we then had to go home for lunch and we all met back up at the bar after lunch .. yes i know we seemed to spend ALL of our time at this bar but what can i say it was really nice and the people were really nice and it holds all of us so that's where we spent most of our time.. later in the day we had to go to another town that is close to Terralbe "Marrubiu" so we could listen to there town council talk to us and thank us for being there and basically it was really really boring just like all of the other days that we were there at that town council.. after the town council we all decided to go get pizza together in Terrallba.. we all rode the bus back to Terralba and one of the people from Terralba knew where there was a pizzeria that would hold us all so we all went there and they were like shocked when we told them we were in 30 so that we needed more places. we waited outside for a while while they got it ready then we went in and we all ordered our pizza.. it was really really yummy..when we were done we all walked back home to go to bed because we had an incredibly long day tomorrow

Feb 24
Well today we had to wake up early so that we could all get on the bus to go to Oristano. This is where i will tell you what those horses and riders do. OK basically once a year during carnival Oristano holds this festival.. There are about 40 horsemen (who they call knights) who where these really extravagant costumes and masks (with really tiny eye wholes) and they ride on these really really fast horses (who are also elaborately decorated) and they have a sword that's really really thin. they start at one end of this long path they they ride REALLY REALLY fast and there is this star with a small whole in the middle of it hanging from the air.. they have to try to stick their sword through the hole in the star while they are running SUPER fast..(their like a blur) in these masks they can barely see out of.. basically its really really really hard to do because you are going so fast and you have to aim just right.. there are only about 40 in all of Sardenga who are good enough to do this. well basically we went to Oristano so that we could watch this. we got there a little early so we first went around a little bit but there were a ton of people.. then when it started we all started to watch.. first all of the horsemen went by why they read off the names and the costumes were sooo pretty..then when they actually started it i could not believe how fast the horses ran.. they went soooo fast.. we watched it for about an hour and a half.. about 6 guys got the star while we were there.. Nicola (a volunteer) told me that when these guys returned to their towns they will be treated like kings .. we then all got back on the bus to go to Terralba to do the Sfilata again. we had all brought our costumes with us. we went back and quickly changed (we did it really quick) and we went out.. we were a little late this time so we were the last group in the parade.. this time our thing was a truck so we had music this time.. they hooked up the ipod of the Colombian boy and we danced to his music.. tonight AFS was alot more lax about people coming into our group and us going into other groups which was nice.. we were all sooo tired at the end of the night that we all met up at the bar and drank some coffee and then we went home and slept.

25 Feb
I woke up today a little late around 10 because i was really really exhausted from this week.. i got all of my stuff together and made sure that my room that i was in was all nice and clean and everything and that i remembered everything that i needed to bring with me and that i didn't leave anything behind.. at 130 my family got home and we ate lunch together and then my little sisters and my host mom took me to Marrubiu where the train station was at 2 pm.. all of the exchange students said our good byes which was 35,468,465,416,846,354 times harder this time then it was back in October.. we were soooooooo sad to leave.. tears were a sure thing and we just hated saying good bye.. we are all so close that at the end of this experience its going to be so hard to leave the Sardegna kids but most of all for me the Cagliari-Iglesais kids.. well the Cagliari Iglesais kids were the first ones to leave so we had to get on our train.. then about 10 minutes later 4 kids from Guspuini got off and so we had to say good bye to them which was really really sad too.. then it was just us Cagliari Iglesais kids left on the train.. we were all talking about how hard it is going to be to say good bye to everyone at the end of the year.. because we know we wont all ever be together again.. not like this.. it was one of the saddest.. no it was the saddest moment of the week... on the good side.. i got back to my real family who i was sooo happy to be with again. i had missed them all soo much!!
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So this is my experience with Orientation, Carnival and being half way through.. I'm sorry that its so long but i had so much to say.. then in just a matter of days i will be re-departing for a week in Trento and i will be living with yet another family for a week. I'm looking forward to this SOOO much for multiple reasons.. 1.. i get to see Venice 2... I get to see my best AFS friend Kayla from the states who just happens to be going to Trento too 3.. my best friend from Cagliari is also going to Trento with me 4... i get to see the alps and the snow.... basically I'm super excited.. that will be my next blog post.. love and miss you all!!